Against All Odds
by Eponine Thenadier
Summary: THE QUEEN. Tony Blair meets the Queen for the first time after the events surrounding Princess Diana's death. They share one private moment. Oneshot.


_Disclaimer: The charaters belong to Peter Morgan and Miramax. The dialogue is directly transferred from the film. I just saw things that the camera missed._

Against all odds

The Queen gets up from the sofa and proposes a walk to the Prime Minister. Tony Blair is glad that he managed so well to get over this awkward moment. Of course it was awkward to talk about "that week", but his preparations of that talk seem to have paid off, even if maybe he was not as sensitive as he would have liked to be. He still feels slightly uncomfortable being around the Queen. The fact that during the summer he talked to her several times on the phone doesn't change this. His feelings are torn. Is he supposed to see her as the Queen only, or can he regard her as the other person she is, the private one, the woman Elizabeth? In a way he feels that she opened up to him, claiming that she will never understand what happened during this summer. But even then, she didn't let her guard down. Not for a single moment.

Such thoughts run through Blair's mind as he walks along the corridors with the Queen. Next to her, yet careful to never touch her unintentionally. He tries to focus on the issues he'll have to talk over with the Queen.

Suddenly she stops and turns to him.

"One in four, you said, wanted to get rid of me?" She looks directly into his eyes, but he can tell that she doesn't see him. Her eyes are clouded with grief.

Uncomfortably, the Prime Minister shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He should have thought that this was preying on the Queen's mind. He wants to say something to make this pain on her face vanish. .

"For about half an hour. But then you came down to London and all of that went away." he reassures her. She looks away from him, fixing a spot on the carpet.

"I've never been hated like that before." she says quietly. How can he answer to that? Blair looks down at the small, grey-haired woman in front of him and realizes that this is not his Queen addressing him, but a woman whose confidence has been deeply hurt.

"It must have been difficult." he says tentatively. He can feel the lump growing in his throat.

"Yes. Very."

For a long moment they just stand opposite each other without speaking a word. The Queen seems to be deeply absorbed in her thoughts and Blair fears that the woman in front of him might burst into tears any second. But just as the situation becomes uncomfortable, the Queen shakes her head slightly and resumes walking down the corridor. Her steps are slower than before. Obviously she is still thinking about something.

"Nowadays the people want glamour and tears and performance. I'm not very good at that, I never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself. And foolishly I believed that was what the people wanted from their queen, not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on one's sleeve. Duty first. Self second. That's how I was brought up." Here she stops again and turns to Blair. Once again they face each other. "That's all I've ever known." She sounds sober rather than desperate.

Nevertheless, in a sudden wave of emotions, Blair takes the Queen's hand into his own and gives it a light squeeze, regardless of every protocol.

"You were so young when you became queen."

"Well…" Blair thinks that the Queen will draw back her hand how, but suddenly her expression changes. "Yes…" she says with a surge of sadness in her voice. "Yes, a girl."

For a split second Blair sees the young Elizabeth in front of him, the weight of a whole Empire on her slim shoulders. Then the Queen regains her composure. She gives his hand a small squeeze before she releases it.

"But I can see that the world has changed." she says. "And one must… modernize."

"Well… perhaps that is where I can help."

The Queen smiles at Blair. The moment of weakness is over and she is her usual royal self again.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Prime Minister. Remember, I am the one who is supposed to be advising you."

Resolutely, she goes on walking so that Blair has to hurry to keep pace with her.

Tony Blair feels that something has changed between them. Bound to the etiquette, there will never be such a thing as friendship between them. Still, Blair knows that they will be able to understand and to respect each other from now on. He feels completely relaxes as he walks next to the Queen in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, surrounded by a pack of barking dogs.

* * *


End file.
